


Sanguine

by belladeum



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nationverse, No Plot/Plotless, Weird Biology, biology headcanons, feliciano is - as always - a sweetiepie, feliciano says a naughty word but the rating is still gen, i originally classed this as gen but i guess they're a couple so... yeah, ludwig has a hate-love relationships with crosswords, ludwig is wistful, my attempt at comedy (yet again), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 21:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17475143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belladeum/pseuds/belladeum
Summary: "There isn't a 'universal' donor, Feliciano.""Yes, yes, I know. Rhesus. Minor antigens. We’ve all had the terrible clots of human treatment gone wrong. Why do you think I avoid getting shot at, huh?"Ludwig and Feliciano discuss blood groups. That's it. || Reupload. Written in 2014 ||





	Sanguine

Four across was a five-letter word with the clue “light” and no indication if this was the verb or the adjective, nor which definition, and Ludwig absolutely detested crosswords for this fact. It did not help that he was doing an English crossword at that, to brush up on his vocabulary. Sure, he was fluent, but words did get away from him from time to time, and the only way to stop Alfred laughing about it was to learn the language and never falter at a conference regarding the disposal of hazardous waste and prospect of nuclear energy options ever again. The word he’d faltered at was now of no consequence, and dwelling on it would only – yes, there was the embarrassment right on cue.

Ludwig inhaled sharply to try and cool the rapid heat in his cheeks. 

“Say, Ludwig?”

“Hm?” he answered.

“What’s your blood type?” Feliciano’s voice originated from across the room. That meant Feliciano was no longer sitting at his feet and pulling the pills from his woollen slippers in a near compulsive manner. Feliciano objected to the use of this term, since without the accompanying obsessions he felt it trivialised Ludwig’s own experiences, but Ludwig knew what he meant, and Feliciano’s behaviour was a little bit like that. Ludwig moved onto another word, knowing it was futile. 

He glanced at his watch. That had been three hours ago. Right. Crosswords certainly were time-consuming and people who did them should honestly find a better hobby. Although to be fair, he’d completed several since then. He’d have done more, if he’d elected to do the cryptic ones, where the clues were phrases and thus easy to solve. But learning and understanding synonyms was good, too.

He should probably respond to whatever it was Feliciano had said.

“Huh?” Ludwig stopped staring at the pen he was rolling aimlessly in his fingers and over to the sofa, where Feliciano was lounging. Judging from the hair he’d just completed a solid three-hour nap. Apart from that he looked not a tad worse for it, having trained in the art for many years. Ludwig had never had a good long-form nap. They always left him feeling hung-over.

“Your blood type,” Feliciano repeated. “Or group, whatever you want to call it. I was talking to Kiku the other day, and he said it’s a big important thing in Japan, like for telling your fortune and stuff. So I was wondering: what’s your blood type?” 

“Looking at horoscopes as well, are we?” he jested. 

“Mm.”

Feliciano sat up abruptly and meandered over to the kitchen table. His gait was jolly and light on the linoleum. His hands danced with expression in front of his chest, emphasising the odd beats of stress in his sentence. “So like, it got me curious. What’s your type – other than me, of course. I mean, I know we’re weird and have a mix of all sorts of antigens and things and since we’re not human it doesn’t make sense because our phenotype changes a lot like how sometimes I have freckles and sometimes I don’t but –”

“That’s surprisingly technical of you,” Ludwig interrupted, impressed and pleasantly surprised at Feliciano’s mumbling. He’d never known Feliciano to be one for delving into the odd existence that was nationhood, and how that extended into their biological expressions. It wasn’t exactly a global field of study, with any information they _did_ have coalesced more or less from personal accounts and reckless trial and error experimentation. Attempts at studies had ranged from unsuccessful to completely ignored. How would one even conduct a study when there was no “normal baseline”? What constituted a statistically significant variation, and what was a sufficient sample size when their numbers were few and could fluctuate? Ludwig, of course, had contemplated these things a lot ever since his inception. 

He blinked and realised with a start he was being stared at with the oddest expression. Those honey-brown eyes were insistent and utterly focussed on him, and so the only thing Ludwig could think to do was to stare back at him. Feliciano blinked as he sat himself down and gave Ludwig relief, albeit momentarily, from his placid gaze.

“What?”

“… Ludwig,” he sighed. “Ludwig, I do know other things than how to draw and cook and fuck you senseless. I promise. I really do think about things other than those.”

It was a fair enough description to say Ludwig then choked on thin air and double over gagging and wheezing, face cherry red and eyes struck wide at Feliciano. The words had fallen out of his mouth as straight-laced as he may inquire about the weather, but the way he’d fluttered his lashes and pursed his lips following it had given Ludwig whiplash.

“ _Feliciano!_ Was– was that even necessary?” he gasped. He looked around ferverently. Alone, good – wait, they were at home, of course no-one else was here. Damn him for getting him so worked up! Feliciano was rolling with laughter on the chair, banging his fist on the table like the little shit he was.

“Very! Oh God your face!” His face was almost as red now, and split into a wide and infectious grin. Ludwig was still shocked of course, but he couldn’t help but sigh at him and found himself smiling a little madly, too.

“So. Blood type?” He snapped right back into that calm (relatively so, everything calm was relative with Feliciano) demeanour and looked at Ludwig from across the table. Ludwig cleared his throat, still thrown off by the previous comment.

“Oh… Hrm. It’s ‘O’.”

“Oooh okay. Is that the… universal…?”

“Donor, yes. And it’s not ‘universal’, there isn’t –” Ludwig frowned.

"Yes, yes, I know. Cells, plasma. Rhesus. Minor antigens. We’ve all had the terrible clots of human treatment gone wrong. Why do you think I avoid getting shot at, huh? It’s such an ordeal – better to steer clear of bullets altogether.” Feliciano waved away Ludwig’s prepared explanation with a swift rebuttal. “So. ‘O’, huh? Wait, I thought –” Feliciano frowned. “Isn’t AB the donor?”

“Ah, no, the O blood group lacks the major antigens on the erythrocyte membrane, so O’s can in theory donate cells to anyone without worry. Of course we’re not human, and as you summarised, it would be unwise for us to –”

“That’s really cool Ludwig! It’s like even down to your blood you want to help people. I’m kind of jealous. What can my blood do, huh?”

“You…” Ludwig frowned and shook his head, trying to ignore the bizarre compliment, and especially how he was reacting to it. “As I was saying, of course I couldn’t give my blood to a human even if I wanted to. We don’t know what the effects would be, if anything. Or if our blood could be stored adequately or even if its expression changed as we do. Our effect on humans and other living creatures becomes more pronounced with exposure, so to give blood to one would be…” Ludwig cleared his throat. “So what’s yours then? Since the topic is ongoing.”

“Oh… I’m an AB I think?”

“The so-called ‘universal receiver’, then.”

“Then that means when I’m a pinch you can give me your blood, right?”

“That sounds vaguely vampiric…” Ludwig muttered as he picked up yesterday’s newspaper and flicked through it in an attempt to distract himself. He’d yet to finish that crossword. Feliciano made a show of hissing and bringing his forefingers to his lips. Blunt fleshy fangs. He giggled at his own tomfoolery. Ludwig did not.

“Ve, but really, would you give me your blood if I needed it?”

Feliciano was back to his serious enquiry. He hopped off his chair and round the table, and put his elbows on the table in front of Ludwig, staring up at him with soft, round eyes. Ludwig paused turning the pages. Feliciano’s chestnut hair fell daintily around his face, curling around sweetly to frame his soft cheeks. 

“Of course I would, Feliciano. In an instant.” He shook his head and dispelled all softness and embarrassing compassion from his voice. “Not that I think such a situation would ever arise. We heal quickly after all, and in all my observations exsanguination has never –”

But Feliciano didn’t seem to be listening. He was staring in awe at Ludwig with eyes wide and gleaming like a child’s. 

“Wow,” he said softly. “You’re the best, Luddy!”

Ludwig grumbled and realised as he tried to bat away the encroaching Italian with the newspaper was that one of the words was ‘annoying’, and while Feliciano sidled up to him and attempted to pry the paper away and distract him with peppery kisses – small, warm, pleasant and moreish – that another was ‘adorable’.

Ludwig resigned himself to silence, arms crossed stubbornly against his chest and eyes focussed on the unfilled white boxes as Feliciano left playful little bitemarks at his neck. His breath was hot at his neck and sent a delightful shiver through him.

“You’re blushing,” he teased with a voice sultry and hands wrapping around his shoulders.

Ludwig refuted this fact as type-O blood again filled his cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Yet more GerIta I wrote a very very many years ago that I tweaked slightly for this upload but really not much. It's probably super obvious where I did add/amend things, though. 
> 
> I wrote this when I was in a blitz of mulling over biology headcanons for the nations. I still think about it, cause it's a very interesting existence they would have. So yeah I still have a lot of biology headcanons regarding the nations - how they work and are born and everything, as well as just more general stuff.
> 
> I'm so bad at naming things but 'sanguine' both refers to blood and to Feli since he's a happy bundle of joy and tomfoolery


End file.
